Get Visual And Haptic Feedback From Your Phone When You Make A Typo [Android]

Autocorrect may have ensured that we make fewer mistakes when writing a report, or composing an email but it has affected how well we can spell and to some extent, it’s also had an impact on how shortsighted we’ve become when typing and proofreading. We expect autocorrect to not only correct misspelled words but to also fill in for the ones we’ve missed and generally know what word it is we meant to type. It works great with spelling, not so great with grammar, and not at all when we make a typo. Tipo is a free Android keyboard that identifies when you’ve made a typo. The keyboard flashes red and you get haptic feedback from your device when an error has been made and autocorrect failed to fix it. The app is free but offers an upgrade of $0.99 that will help you improve your spelling.

Once you’ve installed Tipo, follow the on-screen instructions to enable it and set it as the default keyboard. Next, go to Hangouts and compose a message. When you eventually make a typo, the keyboard will turn red for the briefest of seconds and, if enabled, you will get haptic feedback from your device.

Let’s get the pros of this app out first before we start criticizing it and listing the things that would make it better. The haptic feedback is great. Normally, when I type, I don’t look at the keyboard (which would explain the typso typos) so having the device tell me so using haptic feedback is much better and it doesn’t hog any screen space. Second, and this bit I just love, you can turn on suggestions for offensive words from the app’s settings. I like this because I rarely need to type ‘duck’ but Android and iOS think otherwise.

On to the cons of this app; the on-screen feedback should last a little longer or users should have the choice to set its duration. At present, you can blink and miss it. That’s really the only thing that could stand for some improvement.

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Tipo’s in-app purchase claims to make you a better speller. We haven’t tested it out but the app will have you spell words correctly instead of just correcting them. It’s nice, like being back in school but it will slow typing down. It’s a trade-off between improving a skill (spelling) and being less efficient at the cost of it.